United States: the Republicans' new strategy on abortion

A parenting clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 28, 2022. (Illustrative image) AP - Rick Bowmer

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1 min

In the United States, Republican efforts to restrict access to abortion continue. This week, Nebraska and North Carolina passed laws banning any termination of pregnancy beyond 12 weeks. This is a clear change with their strategy of total banning, a policy that cost them dearly in the last election.

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With our correspondent in New York, Loubna Anaki

In passing laws limiting abortion to 12 weeks, Republicans in Nebraska and North Carolina insisted on one principle: common sense. Forgotten, the strict positions of banning abortion altogether. In both states, conservative lawmakers present their text as a compromise, while their previous attempts to pass stricter laws had so far failed.

Twelve weeks could well become the new threshold defended by Republicans, who are still seeking to define a new strategy on the very sensitive issue of abortion. Their openly anti-abortion rhetoric and policies cost them dearly in the midterm elections. And polls show that a large majority of Americans oppose a total ban on abortion.

But make no mistake either; If the Republican discourse changes a little, and if the new texts seem more moderate, on the surface, the restrictions are there. In Nebraska as in North Carolina, even if abortion is allowed up to 12 weeks, the process is made very, very difficult, if not impossible, according to some opponents. And the new rules are likely to challenge the few clinics that still exist in these states.

►Also listen: Abortion in the United States: the regression

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• United States
• Women's rights
• Society